Validating and improving the Impact of Complementary Currency Systems through impact assessment frameworks

Abstract

Credibility and legitimacy are required to improve the design and implementation of complementary currency systems (CCS) and to engage with public institutions, while depending on sustained support from funders. It is hence necessary to evidence the impact of CCS as effective and efficient tools to reach sustainable development goals. Only around a fourth of the existing studies even touch upon impact evaluation processes. A standardisation of impact evaluation would lead to improve the quantity, quality and comparability of the data collected, as well as to support longitudinal studies and juxtapositions of different types of currencies in their environmental and socio-economic context. After reviewing the literature, this article proposes two complementary approaches to assess the impact of CCS: a prototype of an integral Impact Assessment Matrix based on the goals, objectives and performance indicators, and a tool based on the “Theory of Change” methodology as a common, comprehensive and incremental approach for impact evaluation. Both propositions are currently being applied and further developed by the authors.